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Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Retirement Myths

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5811 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As Talking Real Money moves into its final week on terrestrial radio, Don and Tom mix transition talk with a practical rundown of common retirement myths. They push back on the idea that expenses automatically fall in retirement, warn that Social Security was never meant to cover everything, and explain why relying on the market alone can be dangerous when withdrawals begin. Callers bring in questions about the sketchy-sounding Quantum X trading platform, required minimum distributions, whether a high-income worker can retire at 62, ETF bid/ask spreads, and where to hold bonds when a 401(k) offers outrageously expensive fund options. The episode also doubles as a preview of how listeners can keep calling and interacting once the show becomes podcast-only. 0:04 Final countdown to the end of the radio show and shift to podcast-only 1:55 Retirement myths theme introduced 2:37 Myth #1: You’ll need less money in retirement 4:02 Myth #2: Social Security will cover most of your needs 5:41 Myth #3: The market will do all the heavy lifting 7:21 Caller asks about Quantum X; Don and Tom warn it looks like nonsense or worse 9:27 Simple alternative offered: broad diversification with VT 10:52 Caller asks about RMD confusion across multiple accounts 12:01 Advice to simplify scattered retirement accounts 13:58 More digging into Quantum X raises additional scam concerns 16:13 Caller asks if he can retire at 62 with substantial savings and pension income 17:21 Don presses on actual spending, not income, as the key retirement measure 21:23 Myth #4: You’ll be able to work as long as you want 23:34 Myth #5: Taxes will be much lower in retirement 26:13 Podcast listening gets easier through the website and apps 29:22 Caller asks about ETF bid/ask spreads, especially DFAW versus VT 32:55 Caller asks where to hold bonds when 401(k) bond fund costs are absurdly high 35:12 After-hours pricing explains bizarre ETF spread quotes 36:37 Example of a shockingly expensive Transamerica bond fund 38:04 How listeners can keep calling and participating after radio ends Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:07.0

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0:14.0

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0:22.2

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0:26.1

Learn more at Microsoft.com slash M365 copilot.

0:34.9

Reality Radio for a really great future.

0:38.0

We're talking real money.

0:40.2

The final countdown.

0:43.4

We're in the final countdown to the end of our rain on radio since the 1980s.

0:53.3

Wow.

0:53.7

Please don't say rain. Rain. Oh, I'm sorry. That's a bad, that's a sore word in Seattle. We're almost an island again. How's the... I mean, we're down to one bridge. The south is closed office. Can you get across the bridge still, though? The one, but of course, then there's a backup of, you know, an hour. If it gets worse, don't wait. Don't wait.

1:11.4

I'm not going anywhere.

1:12.0

All right.

1:12.3

I'm not going.

1:13.4

You're stuck at the house.

1:14.4

Well, you can't go anywhere anyway. There's a pile of gravel in your driveway. I just went out to move some of the gravel. Would it surprise you that no one else was out there moving gravel that I was doing it by myself? Really, you think that that's something everyone's dying to do.

1:26.6

Yeah.

1:26.8

I thought my daughter race out there.

1:28.1

Oh, Dad, we're going to go out and shovel gravel.

1:30.3

What a fun day. You think that that's something everyone's dying to do. I thought my daughter would race out there.

1:28.1

Oh, Dad, we're going to go out and shovel gravel.

1:30.3

What a fun day.

...

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